Thanks to continuing development efforts, electric energy storage cells have become relevant for the use in, high-energy applications, for example as traction batteries in motor vehicles, or as stationary energy storage devices. It is known that such electric energy storage cells can be constructed from several cell layers, which is to say from individual electrochemical elements. In order to set an appropriate capacitance and/or output voltage, multiple cell layers are mutually connected to one another. The connections can in this case be realized as parallel connections or as connections in series of the individual cell layers. In order to realize this connection between the cell layers, it is expedient when the cell layers are provided with contact elements that are coupled in an electrically conductive manner with the positive or negative electrodes of the cell layer. The joining of these contact elements is often carried out by welding or soldering. However, it is also known that these connections can be produced with an electrically conductive adhesive. This results in an adhesive site connected the contact elements, usually designed as lead-off lugs. In particular when electric energy storage cells are used in motor vehicles, protection against short-circuits must be provided in order to rule out excessive heating of the electric storage cells, which can even lead to a fire in case of a failure that is caused by short-circuiting.
In this context it is known that the electric storage energy cells can be expanded by using a so called Current Interrupt Device (CID). These devices are intended to separate the electric energy storage cells from the external circuitry of the electric energy storage cell in case of an increased temperature that is causing a failure in the electric energy storage cell. Effective protection is thus achieved in this manner against external short-circuiting, which is to say the short-circuiting that is attributable to the external circuitry of the electric energy storage cells. However, such a CID is limited in its capability to prevent excessive development of heat resulting from an internal short-circuiting. Internal short-circuiting occurs when an individual cell layer is defective in such a way that the cell, layer itself creates an electrically conductive connection between its electrodes. A short-circuit is triggered in this manner in the cell layers connected in parallel because as a result of the defective cell layer, a current can flow between the other cell layers. A CID cannot provide an effective protection against such a failure. Moreover, a CID may not be used in various different designs of electric energy storage cells, such as for example pouch cells, due to their construction. Yet another type of proposed protection against heating that results from an internal short-circuit, which uses massive enclosures, cannot be used due to the high weight of such electric energy storage cells.